PRESS RELEASE:Janny Wurts’ long-running fantasy series, The Wars of Light and Shadow, is once again available in the US. Voyager, HarperCollins UK’s SF and Fantasy imprint, have acquired World Rights for the entire series and Wurts’ standalone fantasy “To Ride Hell’s Chasm”, and will distribute into the US through Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square will relaunch the titles at the rate of one a month, beginning with “The Curse of the Mistwraith” in May 2009.

The Wars of Light and Shadow tells the story of two half-brothers, Arithon and Lysaer, who in the first novel are forced into lifelong conflict in order to free the world of Athera from the Mistwraith. The repercussions of the curse inflicted on them is played out across the series in a rich and emotionally engaging fantasy epic filled with complex characters...

Gene Wolfe, renowned for his fine storytelling and the subtlety of his prose, is regarded by many as one of America's finest living authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His multi-volume novels, such as The Book of the New Sun, The Wizard Knight, and the Chronicles of Latro, stand as landmarks of fantastic literature. And Wolfe's short fiction, eloquent, humane, cunning, has enjoyed enormous praise too. Thus The Very Best of Gene Wolfe, a massive career retrospective featuring thirty-two stories chosen by the master as his finest, is a genuine literary event.

Here are the stunningly different tales that established Wolfe as one of the leading writers of the Seventies New Wave: “The Fifth Head of Cerberus”, set on a colony planet whose macabre social system may hide a horrifying truth about the very nature of the human species; “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories”, in which a young boy's imagination darkly transforms his troubled life in a broken household; “The Hero as Werwolf”, an astonishing gothic enquiry into the roots of what it is to be human; “Seven American Nights”, a baroque masterpiece of altered perception and authorial misdirection set in a ruined America; and many more. And then there are Wolfe's exquisitely crafted meditations on faith and the life of the spirit: the famously revelatory “The Detective of Dreams”, the bewitching “La Befana”, the wondrous “The Eyeflash Miracles”, and the elusive “The God and His Man”, which casts a fascinating sidelight on The Book of the New Sun.

Also well represented are Wolfe's later fictions—playful but infinitely profound: “And When They Appear”, about a Christmas spent in the shadow of civilization's collapse; “Bed and Breakfast”, in which a traveller skirts the borders of Hell; “Petting Zoo”, a vision of cartoons transforming the world; “The Tree is My Hat”, a disturbing South Seas adventure which is also an excellent lead-in to Wolfe's most recent novel, An Evil Guest. And more.

Unique to this PS limited edition is the powerful Yuletide novelette, “Christmas Inn”. The Very Best of Gene Wolfe is without a doubt the collection of the year.

In other news, science fiction author Neal Asher is hosting an art contest HERE. Specifically, he’s looking for scenes, characters, drones, monsters or anything else you can think of from any of the author’s fiction, and the artists of the THREE best pictures will each receive a FREE COPY of Neal’s new book “Orbus” (September 2009)! Even better, if someone comes up with the definitive version of a gabbleduck, then that person will receive not only a FREE COPY of “Orbus”, but Neal Asher’sENTIRE backlist at Pan Macmillan!

Moving on, Andy Remic has announced the “Biohell ZX” Spectrum 48K & 128K videogame! You can read the full press release HERE (PDF), but I’ve included a little excerpt below:

Finally, Drollerie Press has just published John Lawson’s new book “Sorrow”, a tale of darkness, intrigue, and violence that returns readers to the author’s world of “Witch Ember”:

A new killer stalks the palaces of the EroBernd Empire, striking down prominent members of the gentry and clergy, seemingly at will. No amount of security is an impediment, no number of bodyguards a deterrent. This killer enters unseen and departs untouched, leaving behind scenes of butchery and blood.

Duke Valven of EroBernd decides to send his chief assassin, Count Hashii, to the boutique province of Vestiga to resolve the matter before it can cause any further embarrassment. Locals have already contrived a name for this assassin, based on descriptions from victims who lived long enough to tell the tale: a wraith of shadow—a countenance of immeasurable remorse—and eyes that wept black tears.

It is a contest of assassins. One discreet and renowned, an artist tempered by years of service—the other a savage neophyte, ephemeral and unstoppable—both ruthless and deadly. Can the infamous Lord Ash stop the bloodshed and discover the identity of the assassin known as Sorrow?

“Sorrow” is available in Mobipocket, Adobe PDF, MS Reader and Kindle formats, and can be ordered HERE. An Excerpt can be found HERE. For more information, please visit the Official John Lawson Website.